Lawmakers Ask FEC to Let Them Keep PACs

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 4, 2003

Several lawmakers are urging federal election officials to let them keep political action committees they use to raise money for other candidates.

The Federal Election Commission is taking a broad look at the committees, known as leadership PACs. Campaign finance watchdogs have argued that the PACs are used to get around contribution limits.

Members of Congress, including 2004 presidential hopefuls, have used the PACs to raise money for other candidates, to try to build support when seeking leadership positions and to cover travel costs when campaigning for other candidates, among other purposes.

The FEC is considering whether members of Congress can continue applying separate federal contribution limits to their PACs and their campaign committees. It is expected to hold a hearing later this month on the issue, and this week released written comments it has received.

Several Republican House members are asking the commission to continue allowing the leadership PACs. They argue the committees play a key role raising money for political parties and first-time House, state and local candidates who might have trouble raising money on their own.

"Such PACs are not used to facilitate the unfettered whims of a particular Member, let alone his or her own re-election campaign," Don McGahn, general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee, wrote the commission on behalf of 14 GOP House members, including Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Before a new campaign finance law took effect in November, leadership PACs could collect limited donations known as "hard money" for their FEC-regulated federal accounts and spend the money for most any political purpose except on their own campaigns.

They could also maintain another branch of the leadership PAC to raise "soft money" _ donations that are not subject to election commission oversight or contribution limits but couldn't be spent to support a specific federal candidate.

The new law bars national political parties and federal candidates from collecting soft money, and most lawmakers have disbanded the soft money arms of their leadership PACs in recent weeks.

Campaign finance watchdog groups such as Common Cause, Democracy 21 and the Center for Responsive Politics argue that under the new law, the hard money accounts of leadership PACs cannot continue to operate as they currently do, and must be considered affiliated with lawmakers' campaigns _ with the same contribution limits applied to both.

"Simply put, leadership PACs operate as a means to subvert the contribution limits in federal law," Don Simon, acting president of Common Cause, wrote.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a lead sponsor of the campaign finance law, has told the commission he does not believe lawmakers can continue to have such PACs. He said he planned to disband his Straight Talk America PAC as he considers whether to seek re-election in 2004.